1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system and method for automatically transferring calls or allowing access based on received signals, and more particularly to transferring calls to a wireless system or allowing access to a confidential area when a signal is received from a detecting system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless telephone systems which utilize cellular telephones are common and readily available. Electronic door lock systems are also common. For example, many hotels employ electronic door lock systems and many hotel clientele utilize cellular telephones. Presently, while staying at a hotel, a user can forward telephone calls from a personal cellular telephone to a telephone in their hotel room. In this arrangement, the user must remember to manually disable the telephone call forwarding when leaving the hotel room. If a user forgets to forward the telephone calls to the hotel room, the user would have to answer any incoming telephone call on the cellular telephone and incur the associated air time costs. Also, if the user forgets to manually disable the telephone call forwarding after leaving the hotel room, the user may miss an important telephone call which is forwarded to the telephone in the vacant hotel room.
If the telephone calls are forwarded from the hotel room telephone to the cellular telephone, the same problems arise if the user forgets to disable the forwarding. In addition, this arrangement provides little security for the user. Anyone with access to the user's hotel room (e.g., the maid) can pick-up the telephone and enable (or disable) a telephone call forwarding setting.
In public wireless systems, it is desirable to reduce air time usage, and therefore reduce air time charges. Similarly, in private wireless systems, it is desirable to reduce congestion on an internal network. Thus, it is desirable to have automatic transferring between in-room telephones and cellular telephones which provides both the desired cost reduction and the desired congestion reduction. It is also desirable to provide a system in which the user does not have to remember to enable and disable the telephone call forwarding. Finally, it is desirable to provide a system where only the user can enable and disable the telephone call forwarding.
In a business environment, different levels of access to confidential information can be provided to employees with different levels of security. Usually passwords or encoded cards/keys are used to provide an employee's level of security clearance. The passwords are typically entered into a keyboard, and the encoded cards/keys are usually physically placed in a card/key reader. These passwords and encoded cards/keys can be copied or stolen. Also, the card/key readers often break or malfunction from constant physical use. An employee may forget a password or forget to insert an encoded card/key. Thus, it is desirable to have a system which does not require passwords or encoded cards/keys. When a multi-access security system is used, it is usually desirable to provide as much security as possible. Therefore, an automatic input in addition to a password or the manual insertion of a key provides another, transparent level of security which is desirable.